Commercial Finance Manager

DS Smith; Greater London; On-site; GBP 60,000 - 80,000; Full time

Job summary

A leading packaging company is seeking a Commercial Finance Manager to spearhead the financial transformation agenda within the EMEA Packaging Division. The successful candidate will leverage their financial acumen and analytical skills to drive impactful projects, enhance process excellence, and ensure data-driven decision-making. Responsibilities include implementing key initiatives, collaborating with cross-functional teams, and standardizing pricing methodologies to boost governance and reporting. A bachelor's degree in finance or a related field is required, with preference for a master's degree.

Qualifications

• Proven experience in reporting and data governance.
• Experience from top-tier consultancies or international businesses.
• Strong understanding of pricing frameworks and customer profitability analysis.

Responsibilities

• Lead business requirements and testing for strategic initiatives.
• Coordinate inter-functional and sub-regional alignment.
• Implement methodologies for process standardization.

Skills

Financial analysis

Project management

Data governance

Communication

Stakeholder management

Education

Bachelor's degree in business, management or finance

Master's degree

Tools

Microsoft Excel

Microsoft PowerPoint

Microsoft Word

Microsoft Visio

Job description

Location: UK and Europe

Subject to Consultation

About the role

As Commercial Finance Manager within Commercial Finance Transformation, you will play a pivotal role within the commercial transformation agenda for the EMEA Packaging Division.

This is a highly visible position working across finance, commercial, Master data and operational teams to deliver impactful projects, drive process excellence, and ensure data‑driven decision making. You will combine financial acumen with strong analytical and project management skills to lead initiatives that strengthen governance, standardisation, reporting, and performance management across the division.

The core responsibility is to lead the successful implementation of key initiatives for our customer's data, processes and tools as we look to 'pivot to growth'. You will be the driving force behind transforming existing workflows, ensuring increased efficiency and fostering a culture of continuous improvement. This role demands a hands‑on approach, strategic thinking and effective collaboration with cross‑functional teams (SMI, Finance, Supply Chain and I&T) to achieve seamless process transitions, KPIs, tools development and adoption.

Key Responsibilities

• Successfully Lead & Coordinate Business requirements, follow‑up and testing for strategic initiatives.
• EMEA Price DB – requirements sign‑off and platform development ("current prices" for similar products).
• Marginal pricing methodology / framework to support "Pricing to win" for all customers (standardisation & governance).
• Volumes Intercompany overview and framework.
• Data & process harmonisation between sub‑regions and legacy organisations.
• EMEA8020 methodology, process standardisation, follow‑up support (both from customers and products point of view).
• Coordinate inter‑functional and sub‑regional alignment, KPI design for customer‑level volume and revenue reporting: forecast (at a minimum 80s vs 20s); support the "Whales", XR, and the "Most Wanted".
• 8020 Standardised Finance and SMI reporting incl. progress tracking.

About You

• Bachelor's degree in business, management or finance (Master's degree is a plus).
• Strong financial and analytical background with proven experience in reporting and data governance.
• Experience from Top Tier consultancies and/or international order‑producing businesses with ideally experience in commercial support with clear change and stakeholder management responsibilities.
• Experience from financial process designs / redesign projects and reporting – demonstrated results from independently driving and implementing organisational transformations.
• Solid understanding of commercial finance, pricing frameworks, and customer profitability analysis.
• Project management expertise, including stakeholder engagement, governance and reporting.
• Ability to translate complex business needs into structured data and reporting.
• Excellent communication and interpersonal skills, with the ability to convey complex information in a clear and understandable manner.
• Strong communication and influencing skills across senior stakeholders.
• Comfortable balancing hands‑on execution with strategic oversight.
• Adaptability and resilience in navigating challenges associated with process transitions.
• Advanced Microsoft Office platforms knowledge (Excel, PowerPoint, Word, Visio etc.).
• Very strong business understanding and acumen (value chain and data flow understanding, product families) – preferably from the Packaging industry.
• Excellent communication and stakeholder management skills.